Lobbyists on John McCain's team facing some new rules

Several exit as campaign tackles influence issue

by Jerry Kammer - May. 26, 2008 12:00 AMRepublic Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Lobbyists are by definition special interests.

Their connections to powerful members of Congress and their ability to deliver the goods - a regulatory nip here, a tax-bill tuck there or an earmark slipped into an appropriations bill - have fueled an explosion in spending for their services.

Over the past 10 years, the money spent annually on Washington lobbying has nearly doubled to $2.8 billion, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington watchdog group.

Lobbyists also have made themselves key players in campaigns, both as advisers and fundraisers.

Now, the participation of dozens of lobbyists in the presidential campaign of Arizona's Sen. John McCain - as paid staff or unpaid volunteers - has created controversy about the public consequences of such alliances.

The campaign this month announced new rules intended to separate the campaign from lobbying influences. Those rules have pushed several staffers out the door. Still, many others with lobbying ties remain, a fact that some say could mean special influence if McCain were elected.

"A campaign means war," said James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University in Washington. "People are thrown together and a special bond is formed so that later on you can call and talk to the people you worked with and the people you helped get elected."

In late 2006, as McCain pondered a bid for the presidency, he proudly announced that eight prominent Republicans had joined his exploratory committee as national finance co-chairmen.

"Their dedication to the Republican Party and their renowned financial savvy are essential to any successful campaign," McCain said at the time. "And I am so grateful that they have chosen to bring their talents and wisdom to our team."

One of those men was Tom Loeffler, a former Texas congressman turned lobbyist who founded a Washington lobbying firm that bears his name. Loeffler resigned May 18 as the McCain campaign confronted the gap between the idealism of the senator's longstanding fight against special interests and the necessity of raising the money it takes to run a national campaign.

Four other lobbyists also have departed, and the McCain campaign has instituted a series of rules intended to eliminate conflicts of interest. Those rules prohibit campaign workers from working as lobbyists or participating in the independent groups that conduct advertising campaigns intended to influence federal elections.

One rule, formalizing a previous McCain commitment, attempts to nail shut one of Washington's revolving doors between the White House and K Street, Washington's lobbyist corridor. It declares that "anyone serving in a McCain administration must commit not to lobby the administration during his presidency."

Those rules were laid down by campaign manager Rick Davis, who - like many campaign operatives both Republican and Democrat - has made his off-the-campaign-trail living as a lobbyist. For the past 10 years, Davis has been on leave from the lobbying firm that bears his name, Davis Manafort.